Tape handles have been provided for adherence to an object to facilitate carrying and manipulation of the object. As shown in FIG. 1, a tape handle 10 is constructed with a flexible backing strip 12, usually polymeric. The tape handle includes an intermediate non-adhesive portion and a pair of end portions on either side of the intermediate non-adhesive portion. Each of the end portions are coated with a layer of pressure sensitive adhesive. In FIG. I, the tape handle 10 includes one major surface 14 coated with a layer 16 of pressure sensitive adhesive. Intermediate portion 20 of the layer of pressure sensitive adhesive is then masked or covered by a deadening strip 18, with both ends 22 and 24 of the layer of pressure sensitive adhesive on either side of the deadening strip remaining exposed and provided to adhere the tape handle to an object 26, such as a package, at spaced locations, as shown in FIG. 2. The intermediate, masked portion 20 projects away from the object to form a loop 28 that is presented for manual engagement and the end portions adhere to the object with sufficient strength to enable the package to be lifted, carried or otherwise manipulated by grasping the handle.
Alternatively, the flexible backing strip 12 may be preferentially coated with a layer of pressure sensitive adhesive adjacent either end 22, 24 of major surface 14 of backing strip 12, with a intermediate portion of that major surface remaining uncoated.
Since the tape handles are generally considered disposable once applied to an object, it is desirable to provide multiple tape handles in a form that is convenient to store and to dispense individual tape handles when needed. Although a plurality of tape handles may be detachably sequentially secured in end to end relation and stored in roll form, it is desirable in many situations to reciprocally releasably adhere a plurality of the tape handles to each other with the pressure sensitive adhesive coated portions of one tape handle releasably securing the tape handle to an adjacent tape handle in pad form, as shown in FIG. 1, extending from an uppermost tape handle 10a, to a lowermost tape handle 10b. It is to be understood that the terms "uppermost" and "lowermost" as applied to the present invention do not refer to the actual physical orientation of the pad, but rather to the relative positions of individual tape handle with respect to the pad of tape handles and the sequence in which the tape handles are most conveniently dispensed from the pad.
Such tape handle pad constructions 30 conventionally include a removable release liner 32 covering the exposed pressure sensitive adhesive surfaces of the lowermost tape handle. Of course, padded tape handles may be provided in a number of different arrangements utilizing varying methods of construction.
Ordinarily, the pad 30 of tape handles as shown in FIG. 1, must be grasped in one hand while the uppermost individual handle 10 is grasped by the other hand and pulled away from the pad. Once separated, the pad of handles is released and both hands are required to apply the separated tape handle to an object, as in FIG. 2. This is a somewhat cumbersome and time consuming operation. Simply removing the release liner from the pad and applying the lowermost tape handle to a surface to secure the pad to the surface has been found to be unsatisfactory in that each sequential uppermost tape handle that is removed from the pad has an undesirable tendency to curl or adhere to itself before the tape handle can be applied to an object.
Thus, in many situations, it would be desirable to provide a dispenser to conveniently, rapidly and repeatedly present the pad of tape handles for sequential dispensation of individual tape handles, preferably with one hand.